


Fish Cake

by BlackMajjicDuchess



Series: Namesake [17]
Category: Naruto
Genre: Childhood, Family, Fish, Food, Friendship, Gen, Growing Up, Loneliness, Orphans, Ramen, Role Models, Starvation, hunger, naruto - Freeform
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-04-16
Updated: 2014-04-16
Packaged: 2018-01-19 15:31:46
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,445
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1474918
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/BlackMajjicDuchess/pseuds/BlackMajjicDuchess
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>I got the idea in my head one day to bring some of the Naruto characters face-to-face with the thing they were named after for the first time. I thought it might be fun. Also accepting challenges!</p><p>Stories will be posted separately but as part of the Namesake series.</p><p>Part 17: Fish Cake</p><p>Naruto and Ramen. A love story. Or, how Iruka fed a starving brat.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Fish Cake

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Ishimaru_Asuka](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Ishimaru_Asuka/gifts).



> To issue a challenge, just comment on one of the stories in the series with the name you'd like to see done. The only stipulation is that it HAS to be a name that has a meaning, and it has to be a meaning that is something one can encounter. Example: Madara means "spots." What the heck am I supposed to do with that? On the other hand, Naruto's name refers to some kind of fish cake, which is something he could confront somehow.
> 
> Naruto challenge from Ishimaru_Asuka
> 
> Naruto = a kind of processed fish paste cake that is sliced and used as a topping on ramen (and other foods). It has a red spiral in the center of each slice.

His stomach growled so loudly that it turned heads. A handful of people turned from what they were doing to stare at him, but upon seeing who it was, they hurried back to their tasks. He heard their thoughts with the aid of imagination and memory. It was always the same. “There’s that demon brat. Did you just hear that growl? Pure evil, I tell you. We should kill it before it grows up.” He didn’t know what they were talking about, but he knew that they meant him, and that they meant him harm.

Nevermind that he hadn’t eaten a proper meal in days. No one had ever taught him what constituted a meal or how to obtain such a thing. Every now and again, someone left an envelope in the mailbox with money in it, and he took it to the store to buy stuff. But what stuff? What was that weird writing on the package? What did it say? What was in it? What he ended up doing was buying a bunch of random things and eating them out of the package. He had a stove, but had no idea how to use it. He could turn it on, but when he tried to cook things by placing the food contents on the burners, they caught on fire. That wasted his money and his food, and stank besides.

It was a trial and error process, more error than trial.

Except that this time, one of the heads didn’t turn away. One of the adults—one of the younger ones—went so far as to approach him. He was about twice Naruto’s height with brown hair and a tan face. Part of him feared for his life, for rarely did anyone ever acknowledge his existence or show any concern. If anyone was going to approach him, it was usually to mock him or try to beat him up. Interactions with people were almost always bad. But this one was smiling when he approached, and Naruto had figured out what fake, menacing smiles looked like already. This guy was different.

“It’s Naruto, isn’t it?” the man asked him. He had a nice voice; a kind voice.

“Yeah,” he replied dumbly. Naruto retained some of his suspicion, but that question was harmless enough, so it must be okay.

“Are you hungry?”

 _If I say yes, will he poison me?_ “No,” he lied. A moment later, his stomach snarled again, louder and more insistent this time.

The man laughed, but not to mock him. “Alright then. Follow me.” He turned and began to walk away.

Naruto stood there for a minute, confused. He had said no, hadn’t he? So why was the guy acting like he hadn’t? He stared as the other guy was walking away, but then he stopped, turned, as if waiting for him to actually follow. “Aren’t you coming?” he asked with a chuckle and a friendly wave.

His stomach hurt. He ran to catch up.

“I was on my way to get some ramen,” the guy said, brushing aside a curtain that was short enough that Naruto could walk beneath. “You can have some too, if you want.”

“What’s ramen?” he asked suspiciously. “And who are you?”

The guy laughed and scratched his head nervously. “Oh I’m sorry, I forgot. I’m Iruka. I just started teaching at the academy.” Naruto blinked and watched him as he held up two fingers to the man behind the counter. They sat down. The stool was almost as tall as he was, and Iruka had to help him up. “Don’t fall,” he cautioned. “Ramen is a kind of soup with noodles in it. You’ll like it, I think. It’s one of my favorites.”

The scent inside the place was both frustrating and wonderful. It wafted around them like a perfumed curtain, and it sent his belly into fits. His mouth began to water; whatever magic they were cooking in here smelled amazing. “What’s the academy?” he asked. Iruka had a kind smile and apparently excellent taste in food. Naruto found himself wanting to know about all of the things that he liked.

He blinked as if surprised. “You haven’t heard of it?” There was a pause as Naruto shook his head. “Oh! Well, it’s a school. You go there to make friends and to learn things. And, when you get older, you can learn how to become a Shinobi, like me.”

He smiled. It felt foreign on his face. Everyone knew what a Shinobi was. They were strong, and good, and if anyone tried to beat them up or poison them, they could punish them. That settled it. He would go there then, and learn to be like Iruka.

A moment later, two bowls appeared on the counter in front of them. The girl who served them was barely able to see over the counter herself, only a few years older than Naruto, pale wrists appearing as if from empty space, holding bowls out. “Thanks, Ayame,” Iruka said to her.

“Yep!” she called, already busy with something else.

Naruto looked into the bowl. It steamed, something most of the food he ate did not do, pale white tendrils curling and dancing into the air until they disappeared, replaced with more just like them. In the bowl was a large bed of noodles and hot broth, but that was the less interesting part. On top of the bed of noodles was an assortment of other strange and wondrous things. “What is all this?” he asked with awe, forgetting his suspicion and his fears for a moment.

Iruka chuckled and pointed with chopsticks. “That’s a boiled egg,” he explained. “That’s cabbage… barbecue pork… and that…” Abruptly he laughed again. “Ha. I didn’t even think about that. Funny. That’s naruto.”

Naruto pointed a finger at himself. “Me?”

He shrugged. “Well, kind of. Naruto is a kind of roll that’s made using fish, and then it’s sliced and put in foods like ramen.”

“What’s the swirly thing then?” he asked, peering into the bowl at the silly looking thing and the red spiral that decorated the white topping.

“Ah, well… I don’t know. Color probably? It does look pretty cool…” he peered at it, too, trying to figure out its story. “Yeah, I got nothing. I don’t know. But it’s tasty!” With that, he abandoned Naruto’s bowl in favor of his own, digging chopsticks into the broth and moving noodles from bowl to mouth. He grinned at Naruto as he did so.

Naruto spent another moment looking at the goofy swirly fish thing. It looked more fun that tasty. Nonetheless, he picked it up gingerly, mesmerized by how real food actually looked.

Then, he put it into his mouth, and the whole world changed. “Wow!” he exclaimed as soon as it had been chewed and swallowed. “This is the best food I’ve ever tasted!” He tried the egg next. “That’s good, too!” And then, he tried the revelation that was barbecue pork. “Oh… wow. WOW. This is so awesome!” He proceeded to wolf down the whole bowl, filling the empty place in his belly with the best tasting food in the entire world. His taste buds sang with merriment, and his stomach hummed with bliss.

By the time the tunnel vision had cleared, Iruka was merely staring at him with an amused grin and raised eyebrows. His bowl had barely been touched. “That good, huh?” Naruto nodded emphatically, feeling the most satisfied after a meal than he had his whole life, happy and content. “Good,” he said softly. “I’m glad you like it.”

After the meal, Iruka took him to the grocery store and set him up with some basic foods. It was another awesome surprise to find out that ramen came in a cup that he could make at home without even needing to fiddle with the stove. When he’d discovered that, he put all the other groceries back and just filled the cart with ramen cups. Iruka asked him, “Are you sure?” To which he replied, “Yep!”

Years would go by, and he’d learn enough to make a few other things worth eating. Ramen remained the reigning champion of his appetite, though, and before long Ichiraku was his favorite place. Friends were harder to come by than Iruka made it sound, but sitting at the counter in Ichiraku with the ramen guy and his daughter felt close enough while he was there. Sometimes, Iruka came by, too, and they were moments when he almost felt happy, and he’d pretend that Iruka was his dad, Teyuchi a favorite uncle, and Ayame his cousin.

It worked, for a little while.


End file.
